This isn't an angst post, although I AM kind of peeved I'm no longer legally old enough to display angst (which has been true for the past 6 years, but seeing as how I started angsting a little late in life, I had some leeway till my 25th..). Neither is this a post about Jose's eye-poking angst, nor about why Steve Jobs didn't invent an iCancerpill before they pulled the plug (what....I don't have Facebook, I need to get on the bandwagon somehow!). Rather about the increasing concentration of Jose Mourinho articles across footballing media (to which, ironically enough, I have just added....) as the only representative of Real Madrid. From ex-players, coaches, and society for ethical treatment of translators, comments about how Mourinho is the man to end Barca's dominance are asphyxiating the already pencil-necked football sites. What's worse, RM players have been reduced to puppets/zombies (depending on whether you found Chucky or NOLD scarier... although now I'm thinking undead re-animated brain-eating Chucky is the idea that'll finally kick off my Hollywood writer career...did I mention he got bitten by a radioactive spider too?) mindlessly chiming the glories of their coach and attributing anything from injury recovery, brilliant solo goals, tireless play in the middle, white shiny teeth, or nobel peace prize all to Jose Mourinho. From Ramos, to Khedira, to Angel, Ronaldo and Kaka - any article vaguely resembling a RealMadrid player seems solely focused on their coach.
Only Casillas (strangely enough, I was convinced he had suddenly changed from a nice guy to a Real asshole after Mourinho came in, with his anti-Barca comments and fight-stirring.. maybe not), Alonso and recently a brilliantly refreshing tirade by Pedro Leon, keep any kind of non sycophantic dignity intact in this team. I don't buy any of this "Galacticos need some humility" and the jazz about coaches needing to be big personalities who can keep egos in check bullshit. If their point is that no one man is bigger than the team so egoistic players harm the dressing room, why are coaches bigger than the team and why don't egoistic coaches harm the dressing room!! Coaches are intrinsically in a position of power, egoistic players like Zlatan can be booted at any moment regardless of the hardness of a coach! Obviously you are going to now name all the hard coaches who consistently did way better than the soft ones, but I only have 2 names - Del Bosque and Pep, no reason for me to look for more.. For those saying 2000s Madrid is a team which revolves around highly paid egomaniac players requiring iron-whip coaches - Schuster, Capello, Camacho, Juande Ramos were all hard coaches, all failures.
But for what it's worth, I do wonder if maybe ex-players, coaches and the SETT are right about him being the coach to topple Barca. After an irritatingly defensive 6-7yrs, Pellegrini finally turned Madrid into a semblance of the attack minded side they used to be, with Granero and Alonso in more creative roles ahead of Diarra, and Kaka playing in the hole behind 2 forwards (Ronaldo, Higuain). Enter Mourinho - back to double pivot and single forward. Means their transitions are much smoother, even easy on the eye when Ozil is playing well, but always counter-attacking rather than really attacking. That being said, can't deny it's worked. Madrid's biggest problem was dropping points away from home, strange for Pellegrini since back at Villarreal he used to be one of the few coaches in Liga with a comparatively better away record. Much less adventurous play away from home was one of the biggest reasons they ran away with second place ahead of all the rest of Liga. The table gives % win-draw-loss on total games, Home stats and Away wins are almost identical for Pellegrini-Madrid and Mourinho-Madrid, the only difference being Away losses and draws.
So why might ex-players, coaches and SETT be right about Jose this year? Because teams playing away at Barca are exactly what's going wrong with Barca in recent years - teams who set up shop in the Nou Camp and lay eggs for 90 minutes (metaphorical eggs of course, although I have my doubts about Pepe...). While Barca's away stats have improved from 2009 to 10, their home stats have suffered from teams who come to the Nou Camp with a draw in mind. Obviously a 95% home win record was not going to be sustained, and last season was only 3 points less than 2009, so it isn't enough to start calling the CIA in (or SHIELD, considering Messi and Iniesta aren't really made of anything human), but less teams are going to look at the Valencias, Atleticos, and Sociedads attacking Barca and taking points, and more teams are going to look at the Madrids and Sevillas trying to shut Barca out and maybe strike on the counter. In hindsight, I guess this explains all the bizarre formations Pep has been trying out, teams aren't going to let Barca be Barca for too much longer.
No comments:
Post a Comment